David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ Is His First No. 1 Album Ever

Throughout his nearly half-century career, David Bowie never achieved a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. But his final album Blackstar, released just days before the legend's death on Jan. 10, debuted atop the chart this week.

According to Billboard, Blackstar sold 181,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week ending Jan. 14 and 174,000 of those were pure album sales, making this Bowie’s biggest week for album sales since Nielsen Music first began tracking purchases in 1991. Bowie’s previous sales week record was in 2013, when The Next Day sold 85,000 copies during its first week.

Since Bowie’s death, nine of his other albums have also jumped up the Billboard charts as well, and his 2002 greatest hits record Best of Bowie reached fourth place, while his 1972 classic The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars hit No. 21.

Blackstar unseated Adele’s 25, which had been at No. 1 for seven consecutive weeks and Bowie is also the first artist since Adele to have two albums in the top four at the same time. Blackstar is the first posthumous No. 1 album since Michael Jackson’s This Is It in 2009.